


Victorious Forfeit

by MiniNephthys



Category: Fate/stay night (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-21 05:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin reads about the Second Grail War, which is strangely applicable to her own situation.  December 2008.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Victorious Forfeit

Rin hummed to herself as she searched through her library, looking for any books that might help her in winning the Grail War.

“Shall I make you some tea, Rin?” Archer asked. She nodded, and the Servant disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.

His Master watched him go, and then returned her attention to the cases of books. She’d read and reread all of them, of course, and nearly memorized their contents. But if there was even one that she had forgotten, one spell or strategy could mean the difference between life and death.

Her gaze fell upon a plain-looking book, tucked surreptitiously between two much larger volumes. Had she not been looking for such unnoticeable books, she would have passed right over it.

After tugging the book out of its hiding spot, she read the cover and realized why it had been so placed.

 _An account of the second Heaven’s Feel, as witnessed by your humble servant._ Written by the French mage Beauvais, who claimed to have been a Master in the second Holy Grail War, and the ultimate winner. It detailed the Servants, Masters, and battles of the war.

He was a Master in the second Holy Grail War. That part was true.

Everything else in the book, however, was almost certainly utter lies.

For example, he claimed that he had summoned a Saber-class Servant. Joan of Arc, hero of France, to be exact. However, several times in the book he’d made slip-ups and revealed that his Servant had been male and English. That, and the much longer coverage given to his “opponent’s” Archer than to his own Servant, meant that he’d summoned Robin Hood and hadn’t been happy about it.

Rin again glanced in the direction of the kitchen. Some things never changed.

And that was only the most obvious fabrication. Beauvais was a notorious flirt who exaggerated his role in everything, ignored his losses, lied constantly, and wrote the book entirely to help him pick up chicks.

Magi scoffed at the book and the idea that _any_ useful knowledge could be gained from its contents, but it was one of the only accounts of the Grail Wars that they had. So, most magi had a copy squirreled away somewhere. For personal amusement, of course. Not because they believed a word of it. And that was the only reason it had been translated into a dozen languages.

Rin looked around the room at all of the tomes she had already read. Sighing, she flopped into a chair and began to flip through the book’s pages.

 _My own Servant was the fair, radiant, and wondrous Joan of Arc, who I am sure my readers know quite well. The armor she wore only accentuated her beauty. Even those at the end of Saber’s sword could not help but love her._

She snorted. “You’d know from experience, wouldn’t you?” She skipped over the rest of his singing her praises.

 _I had the displeasure of being well-acquainted with Archer. That man - the hero of the English poor - was completely insufferable. He would flirt constantly with every woman in sight. He ate too much, slept too much, and had no sense of humility... And then when you couldn’t find him anywhere and you were going to tear his throat out when you did, you’d eventually see him rescuing a cat from a tree. And then he’d smile and apologize for worrying you._

 _Insufferable._

Again, she skimmed over the section. It was obvious to everyone except Beauvais that despite their bickering, he’d genuinely been fond of his Servant. The long rant about ‘the nerve that Englishman had of dying on him’ didn’t help his case any.

 _I regret to say that I cannot be of much service in identifying the Lancer-class servant. I clashed with him once (in a battle I have described elsewhere in the text) - enough to know that he was Greek, and almost certainly Spartan. Rider defeated him early on, and even he did not know his opponent’s identity. But then, anonymity suits the Spartans._

Interesting, but unhelpful.

 _Berserker was Norse - one of those fierce warriors the word was coined for. He may have been Egill Skallagrimsson, or his father Skalla-Grimm, or his father Kveld-Ulf (although he was not, to the best of my knowledge, an actual werewolf). He did not exactly engage in long discussions about his identity. Berserker was a ferocious opponent, but no match for one such as me._

Also unhelpful. She skipped a page.

 _As you know, my dear readers, Servants are usually summoned to those similar to them in temperament. Thus, it is no surprise that the Master least interested in winning the war summoned the Servant who felt the same._

 _I mention the Master here because it is impossible to separate Rider from his Master. And theirs is a story that appeals to my poor, romantic heart._

Rin rolled her eyes and kept reading.

 _Rider I know to be Adonis, that beautiful Greek youth. I trust I will not traumatize the ladies overmuch if I describe how stunning he was. Every myth about his beauty, about the goddess of love and lust herself falling for him, was not only plausible but readily obvious once you looked at him. He was…_

 _Ahem._

 _Rider’s Master shared my feelings, to say the least. She - a wonderful woman, who I have had the good fortune to remain in close contact with - was not nearly so charming as to get her Servant’s attention. After all, the man had less interest in Aphrodite than in his hunting._

 _But, unfortunately for more human interested parties, his Master was undeterred. And, unlike Aphrodite, she had Command Spells._

 _Through excellent strategy and planning, the Master refrained from using any of her Command Spells and defeated all the Servants except Saber. And then, as the two remaining Servants faced each other and the Grail shone behind them, she used all of them._

 _Drink from the waters of the Holy Grail and make himself immortal. Remain with her until the natural end of her lifespan. Sire upon her a child within the year._

 _In the space of perhaps two minutes, she forfeited the war and acquired herself one of the most handsome lovers known to man._

 _My gentle readers, the expression on Rider’s face at that moment was not something I can do justice to in words. It is simply something you would have had to see for yourself._

 _At the moment that I write this, Rider and his former Master (whose name I have withheld, to protect her privacy) are living somewhere in Greece. The fact that they are married, which was not one of the Commands, delights me to no end. Rider intends to become an athlete, and I have no doubts that he will do well for himself in this new time._

 _I can state with confidence that they are infinitely more pleased with losing than they would be with winning._

“Your tea,” Archer said calmly, putting the tray down in front of her.

Rin started, glaring at her Servant with all the force she could muster. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

He shrugged, pulling himself a chair. “I’ve been in the room for a few minutes. You were simply too engrossed in that book to notice. Did you find out any useful information?”

She sighed. “No. I don’t know why I even bothered reading this; it’s all either lies or complete nonsense.” Out of spite, she added, “No real magus would give up a chance at the Holy Grail to run off with their Servant.”

Instead of being offended like she hoped, he merely raised one eyebrow and replied, “I wouldn’t be so certain. Men - and women - will do foolish things for love. It’s part of what makes them unpredictable. And that makes them dangerous.”

“Giving up the _Holy Grail_ for that?”

“I never said that it was a good idea, just that it could happen.”

Rin deigned not to answer that, instead sipping her tea and sneaking glances at Archer whenever she thought he wasn’t looking.

He looked normal when he was drinking tea, she decided. Not a dead hero from ages past, not a being whose sole purpose for existing in this world was to kill, but an ordinary human. It was almost as if…

Archer caught her gaze and flashed her a particularly smug smirk. She twitched and looked away, trying not to blush.

Don’t be stupid, she told herself. She was a Tohsaka, and she fully intended to win the Grail War. She had responsibilities and duties to her family, and those did not include throwing in the towel in order to fulfill her own wishes. She could not and would not follow in the footsteps of an unnamed magus who, for all she knew, might not have ever existed. The very idea was ridiculous.

But…

Subconsciously, her gaze returned to her Servant, and a small smile appeared on her face.

 _If_ she could.


End file.
